Metallica - Master Of Puppets
The Pointer Sisters - Automatic
Scritti Politti - Perfect Way
New Order - All Day Long
Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
Big Log - Robert Plant
Hall & Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
ZZ Top - Legs
Lionel Richie - All Night Long (All Night)
The Isley Brothers - Between The Sheets
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
The Gap Band - You Dropped A Bomb On Me
Mr. Mister - Broken Wings
Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumours
Steely Dan - Time Out Of Mind

Maybe my favorite Prince ballad. You can smash up my ride.....well, maybe not the ride..... _________________“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
― James Baldwin, Collected Essays

Pretty much all of Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" album.

Some good hip-hop in the 80's man...

Nobody, and I mean Nobody, ever flowed like The Kane. Just ridiculous flow._________________“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
― James Baldwin, Collected Essays

This is a hard one, I feel like I gotta separate the pop from the rock and R/B, etc. The pop and synthpop that most people associate with the decade and it's polarizing -- it's either ADORED or cited as fluff. I have an appetite for all kinds of music at different times, so I try to temper my music snobbiness more successfully than I do with my movie snobbiness.

I'll start on the contemp rock side:

Clash - London Calling (1980 rite?), Rock The Casbah
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World & Head Over Heals
Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang
Billy J - For The Longest Time (I like Only Human too, good video)
Police - Message In A Bottle, Wrapped Around Your Finger, De Doo Doo Doo, etc.
Foreigner - Waiting For A Gurl Like You, Urgent
Billy Squier - In The Dark
Stray Cats - I Won't Stand In Your Way (that was their only song of worth imo)
Bruce - Hungry Heart
Mellencamp - Crumbling Down, Pink Houses
Greg Kihn - Breakup Song
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell (that song is intensely evocative of 84 to me for some reason), Eyes Sans Face
Henley - Boys Of Summer, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Dirty Laundry
The Cars - Since Your Gone, I'm Not The One (80s pickins are slimmer than their late 70s stuff)
Petty - Refugee, Runnin Down A Dream (same deal, late 70s stuff is his best), though liked his collabos Stop Draggin My Heart Around and Handle With Care
U2 - I Will Follow, New Years Day
Scorps - Still Lovin You

Pop:
Boingo - Better Luck Next Time
Human League - Mirror Man
Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me (that might be the quintessential 80s pop song because of its tie TBC)
Kim Wilde - Kids In Amurica (she was beautiful)
Prince - his best songs musically and lyrically from that decade are - Let's Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, LRC, and The Beautiful Ones. I like most of his stuff from The Revo era.
Thought Jackson was entertaining, but wouldn't call myself a fan, but Beat It was his best imo. Dirty Diana is my pick from Bad.
Phil Collins - all of Pat Bateman's faves (no Huey, sorry)

There's actually a lot of 80s stuff that I enjoy, I just despise the general pop scene from that decade. The heavy use of synth, the corny arrangements and the electronic drum modules just kill it for me sometimes...

Last edited by panamaniac on Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:28 am; edited 1 time in total

Van Halen - Fair Warning (1984 would be the logical choice, but this has always been my personal fave)

I've never not heard anyone cite Fair Warning or VH1 as their two favorite VH albums, it's weird. Same with me as well. The live performance videos from 81 Oakland (Hear About It Later, Unchained, So This Is Love) were amazing, that's probably why. That was them at their peak, imo. I believe they had already begun to wane and lose focus in 82 and Dave started getting into stupid offshoots (Diver Down was a hurried album to fit around the Pretty Woman single after it became a hit). Otoh, the albums in 80 and 81 especially did NOT cater to that "widest cross section" of music fans that they're credited for having. The stuff on Women & Children First is very esoteric, radio unfriendly, and mostly hard edged.

Van Halen - Fair Warning (1984 would be the logical choice, but this has always been my personal fave)

I've never not heard anyone cite Fair Warning or VH1 as their two favorite VH albums, it's weird. Same with me as well. The live performance videos from 81 Oakland (Hear About It Later, Unchained, So This Is Love) were amazing, that's probably why. That was them at their peak, imo. I believe they had already begun to wane and lose focus in 82 and Dave started getting into stupid offshoots (Diver Down was a hurried album to fit around the Pretty Woman single after it became a hit). Otoh, the albums in 80 and 81 especially did NOT cater to that "widest cross section" of music fans that they're credited for having. The stuff on Women & Children First is very esoteric, radio unfriendly, and mostly hard edged.

Good call on End Of Innocence. I actually own that, I'm gonna include Don in my post above.

That's a good point. I think VH have always been a "musician's band", and Fair Warning is simply Eddie at his apex. It's the quintessential "guitar nerd" album. I'm a guitar player myself and I've always looked at the first four VH records as some sort of holy grail. If I had to pick a favorite I'd probably lean towards VHII (which came out in the 70s) simply because I feel that they struck a good balance between the instrumental virtuosity and great, timeless songs. I always dug that. But I always say that the first four albums are some of the most groundbreaking rock n roll perhaps since Zeppelin.

Yeah, End of Innocence, great record. I think I like it better than any Eagles album.

Van Halen - Fair Warning (1984 would be the logical choice, but this has always been my personal fave)

I've never not heard anyone cite Fair Warning or VH1 as their two favorite VH albums, it's weird. Same with me as well. The live performance videos from 81 Oakland (Hear About It Later, Unchained, So This Is Love) were amazing, that's probably why. That was them at their peak, imo. I believe they had already begun to wane and lose focus in 82 and Dave started getting into stupid offshoots (Diver Down was a hurried album to fit around the Pretty Woman single after it became a hit). Otoh, the albums in 80 and 81 especially did NOT cater to that "widest cross section" of music fans that they're credited for having. The stuff on Women & Children First is very esoteric, radio unfriendly, and mostly hard edged.

Good call on End Of Innocence. I actually own that, I'm gonna include Don in my post above.

That's a good point. I think VH have always been a "musician's band", and Fair Warning is simply Eddie at his apex. It's the quintessential "guitar nerd" album. I'm a guitar player myself and I've always looked at the first four VH records as some sort of holy grail. If I had to pick a favorite I'd probably lean towards VHII (which came out in the 70s) simply because I feel that they struck a good balance between the instrumental virtuosity and great, timeless songs. I always dug that. But I always say that the first four albums are some of the most groundbreaking rock n roll perhaps since Zeppelin.

Yeah, End of Innocence, great record. I think I like it better than any Eagles album.

Something else you said to "jump" off of is that it seems like guitar players or musicians who liked them had same first 4 cutoff even if they continued to like them in general, the Hagar years etc. A VH song is usually pretty good no matter what, but the first 4 albums were the youthful prime, which you never get back to, ask Bron. Heard that sentiment from Kerry King of Slayer and Tom Morello in so many words. They'll say "early VH", that's what it essentially means as you already know. The Pantera guys liked them a lot, I can recall Mellancamp talking about them in different interviews although he was from Bloomington IN as was Roth (they might've known each other as kids). The Weezer guys (their logo is an homage). Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains was a fan, singer of the Seattle alt The Melvyns said he had both VH1 and Bollocks at the same time, etc. Henry Rollins (formerly Black Flag) is an admitted VH nut. Weezer to Pantera and Slayer. You can't get a bigger net than that. It may not be what you and I like most, but I think VH's particular genius was that with their musicianship, which critics usually granted them if nothing else, they were able to pull off pop type songs, which were generally well-done. That's probably harder for a quote "heavy metal band", to pull off than Unchained. Jump is a great pop song, it's just the "pop song" part that's the problem for most fans, but I don't begrudge em for branching out a bit. The videos from 1984 were unquestionably classics. Prime MTV. The Hot For Teacher vid is their greatest imo. One of the few videos that I firmly have above all else is the video to Every Breath You Take, which looks as good today as it did then, completely undated. Probably Thriller, too, though that's more like an 8 min movie to me being that it was directed by Landis. Maybe Sledgehammer. Yeah, they were funny, but the a-ha vid was good (Take On Me). _________________GOAT MAGIC REELSEDALE TRIBUTEEDDIE DONX!

This is a hard one, I feel like I gotta separate the pop from the rock and R/B, etc. The pop and synthpop that most people associate with the decade and it's polarizing -- it's either ADORED or cited as fluff. I have an appetite for all kinds of music at different times, so I try to temper my music snobbiness more successfully than I do with my movie snobbiness.

I'll start on the contemp rock side:

Clash - London Calling (1980 rite?), Rock The Casbah
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World & Head Over Heals
Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang
Billy J - For The Longest Time (I like Only Human too, good video)
Police - Message In A Bottle, Wrapped Around Your Finger, De Doo Doo Doo, etc.
Foreigner - Waiting For A Gurl Like You, Urgent
Billy Squier - In The Dark
Stray Cats - I Won't Stand In Your Way (that was their only song of worth imo)
Bruce - Hungry Heart
Mellencamp - Crumbling Down, Pink Houses
Greg Kihn - Breakup Song
Billy Idol - Rebel Yell (that song is intensely evocative of 84 to me for some reason), Eyes Sans Face
Henley - Boys Of Summer, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Dirty Laundry
The Cars - Since Your Gone, I'm Not The One (80s pickins are slimmer than their late 70s stuff)
Petty - Refugee, Runnin Down A Dream (same deal, late 70s stuff is his best), though liked his collabos Stop Draggin My Heart Around and Handle With Care
U2 - I Will Follow, New Years Day
Scorps - Still Lovin You

Pop:
Boingo - Better Luck Next Time
Human League - Mirror Man
Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me (that might be the quintessential 80s pop song because of its tie TBC)
Kim Wilde - Kids In Amurica (she was beautiful)
Prince - his best songs musically and lyrically from that decade are - Let's Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, LRC, and The Beautiful Ones. I like most of his stuff from The Revo era.
Thought Jackson was entertaining, but wouldn't call myself a fan, but Beat It was his best imo. Dirty Diana is my pick from Bad.
Phil Collins - all of Pat Bateman's faves (no Huey, sorry)

Rap: I was a RUN DMC, Beasties fan back then. Run's House is their undisputed best imo. A little LL. Nothing non-mainstream at that early stage.

Back later for adds. Nowhere near complete.

Best Prince songs of the 80's

Uptown
When you were mine
Do me baby
Ronnie talk to Russia
DMSR
Let's pretend we're married
All the critics love you in NY
Let's go Crazy
Computer Blue
Darling Nikki
When Doves Cry
Baby I'm a star
Rasberry Beret
Pop Life
I wonder U
Under the Cherry Moon
Girls and Boys
Kiss
Anotherloverholeinyohead

Just take the entire Album of "Sign O' the times" and throw it in there. And then do the same to "Lovesexy" and "Batman" sound track.

Prince in the 80's was no (bleep) joke yo!_________________“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
― James Baldwin, Collected Essays

Uptown
When you were mine
Do me baby
Ronnie talk to Russia
DMSR
Let's pretend we're married
All the critics love you in NY
Let's go Crazy
Computer Blue
Darling Nikki
When Doves Cry
Baby I'm a star
Rasberry Beret
Pop Life
I wonder U
Under the Cherry Moon
Girls and Boys
Kiss
Anotherloverholeinyohead

Just take the entire Album of "Sign O' the times" and throw it in there. And then do the same to "Lovesexy" and "Batman" sound track.

Prince in the 80's was no (bleep) joke yo!

You don't got Beautiful Ones in there, KB? I thought Baby I'm A Star was a filler song on Purp Rain. Like Computer Blue though, that made it into the movie. Purple Rain was a good album from top to bottom. The bulk of the tracks had sellable hooks, most albums from the spectrum covering pop and rock had maybe 3 at most. Take Me With U was one of those, for example. Not his greatest work, maybe, but still catchy. Haha at Batdance. I remember that being on radio/MTV a lot that Summer, especially with the furor over that movie. The line for that damn thing stretched around the building and they were handing out sno cones. Nothing Compares 2 U was a good lyrical song, made Sinead a known bald head overnight. Then she ruined it all by tearing up the Padre._________________GOAT MAGIC REELSEDALE TRIBUTEEDDIE DONX!